Twenty American Quarter Horses entered in 38 amateur and open classes earned a total of 173 points, seven AQHA world championships and five reserve world championships at the 2009 AQHA World Championship Show. Those are impressive statistics. Even more impressive is that they all belong to one ambitious owner – Rita Crundwell of Dixon, Illinois, the 2009 Oklahoma City Leading Owner award winner at this year’s World Show.
Horses that Rita exhibited at this year’s World Show included 2009 open and amateur world champion aged stallion Acoolest; 2009 open and amateur world champion yearling mare I Execute Class; You Maka Me Happy, who made the finals in progressive working hunter, junior hunter hack and junior working hunter; IE Sumthin, who was the reserve world champion in senior hunter hack and won the bronze trophy in senior working hunter; and Execute, who was the reserve world champion in performance halter stallions. Horses bred by Rita also made the finals in several classes.
An AQHA 20-year cumulative breeder, Rita has won the award six times. Before that, she was The American Quarter Horse Journal reserve leading owner for four years. But Rita doesn’t rest on her success.
Q: How do all of these statistics make you feel?
RITA: Cool. Very, very cool!
Q: What does this award say to you as a breeder, an owner?
RITA: We’re always striving to improve the quality of our horses that we raise and show. We continuously try to do that. It’s easy to be barn-blind, but we just try to find the correctness of some of the horses and cross them, and I think we’re doing a good job.
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